Gold and silver prices changed direction from the slow climb up the ladder they have experienced in the first couple of weeks of October as they declined during most of last week. The speculation revolving the next move of the EU policymakers next week may have contributed to the volatility of precious metals’ prices. Some speculate that the liquidity problem many European banks are facing caused them to trade in their commodities’ holding including in gold and silver in order to boost their capital buffer. The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index sharply inclined during October and the U.S. housing starts also picked up in September; these news items may have also helped relieve some of the tension in the financial markets and thus cool the recent gains in the bullion markets.
Here is a short review of the changes in gold and silver prices during the week of October 17th to October 21st 2011:
Precious Metals Prices Weekly Summary:
Gold price sharply declined by 2.42% during the week; furthermore, this week’s average gold price of $1,645 /t. oz was lower by 1.68% than the previous week’s average price of $1,673 /t. oz. Gold price finished the week at $1,636 /t. oz.
Silver price, much like gold price, sharply fell during the week by 1.97%, and this week’s average price was 31.28/t oz or 2.62% below the previous week’s average $32.12/t oz.
During the week, the average daily percent change of gold price decreased by 0.56%; silver price declined by an average daily rate of 0.60%.
In the chart below are the silver and gold prices that were normalized to 100 to the price at the beginning of the week – October 17th. It shows the weekly development of gold and silver prices.
In the chart above gold and silver prices started to sharply fall during the middle of the week especially on Wednesday and Thursday, then there was a correction in the last day of the week as gold and silver prices bounced back and inclined.
The last chart is of the daily percent changes of silver and gold prices (or in other words the price changes around the trend). It shows that silver and gold prices had two large daily percent changes: on Thursday gold and silver prices sharply fell, but on Friday they sharply inclined by near similar rates.
[ratings]
For further reading:
- Gold & Silver Prices – Daily Outlook October 21
- Gold and Silver Prices Monthly Outlook for October 2011
Previous issues of weekly report: